Sentinel

Every major deity boasts champions of some type, whether they are paladins sworn to The Inheritor or barbarians who channel their destructive rage from The Rough Beast. The sentinel is a warrior who receives special powers in exchange for his service to a deity, and often serves as a guard for the deity’s clergy. Some undergo official training, others experience visions leading them to their path, and some simply make the decision to pledge their lives to upholding their faith.

Sentinels frequently clash with enemies of their deity or champions of rival faiths, and occasionally work with other sentinels to undertake great quests or overcome challenging obstacles. Some inspire unique warrior orders dedicated to their faith, and legendary champions of the faith are often sentinels.

Hit Die: d10

Requirements

To qualify to become a sentinel, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria.

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Sentinels are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor (heavy, medium, and light), and with shields (except tower shields).

Obedience (Ex)

In order to maintain the abilities granted by this prestige class, a sentinel must perform a daily obedience to his chosen deity.

Symbolic Weapon (Su)

When wielding his deity’s favored weapon, the sentinel gains a +1 sacred or profane bonus on attack and damage rolls. These bonuses increase by 1 for every 3 levels he has in the sentinel prestige class (maximum +4). His deity’s favored weapon also functions as a holy (or unholy) symbol when wielded by a sentinel.

Bonus Feat

At 2nd level and again at 7th level, the sentinel gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained from normal advancement. These bonus feats must be selected from those listed as combat feats. Sentinel levels stack with fighter levels for the purpose of qualifying for feats with a fighter level prerequisite. If the bonus feat selected requires the sentinel to select a specific weapon for the feat to apply to (such as Greater Weapon Focus), the sentinel must select his deity’s favored weapon.

Divine Boon

Where are the Divine Boons? For details regarding boons granted by the gods of the official Pathfinder Roleplaying Game campaign setting, please see PCS:ISG.

As the sentinel gains levels, he gains boons from his chosen deity. The nature of these boons varies depending on the sentinel’s chosen deity. Each deity grants three boons, each more powerful than the last. At 3rd level, the sentinel gains the first boon. At 6th level, he gains the second boon, and at 9th level, he gains the third boon. Consult the Deific Obedience feat for details on divine boons. When a divine boon grants a spell-like ability, the sentinel’s caster level for the spell-like ability equals his total character level.

This ability allows a sentinel to access these boons earlier than with the Deific Obedience feat alone; it does not grant additional uses of the boons once the character reaches the necessary Hit Dice to earn the boons normally.

Divine Quickness (Ex)

Starting at 4th level, so long as the sentinel carries his deity’s favored weapon, he gains a +2 sacred or profane bonus on initiative checks. The weapon doesn’t need to be carried in hand, but must at least be on his person and accessible enough that he can wield it with no greater than a move action. At 8th level, this bonus increases to + 4.

Aligned Strike (Su)

The sentinel’s righteous fervor allows him to cut through certain types of damage reduction.

At 5th level, the sentinel gains the ability to bypass a specific type of damage reduction when wielding his deity’s favored weapon. The type of damage reduction his weapon bypasses is based on his chosen deity’s alignment. The sentinel chooses this type of damage reduction when he gains this ability and this choice can’t be changed. He can choose only one of the aligned weapon types regardless of how many options he has based on his deity’s alignment. For example, a sentinel of the Inheritor can treat his weapon as axiomatic or holy, but not both. The choices are as follows.

Lawful: The sentinel can treat his weapon as axiomatic if his deity is lawful.

Chaotic: The sentinel can treat his weapon as anarchic if his deity is chaotic.

Evil: The sentinel can treat his weapon as unholy if his deity is evil.

Neutral: The sentinel can choose one of the four other weapon alignment types if his deity is neutral.

Stalwart (Su)

At 5th level, the sentinel gains mental fortitude through his constant meditation and adherence to religious tenets. He gains a +2 sacred or profane bonus on saving throws to resist divine spells.

Practiced Combatant (Ex)

At 7th level, the sentinel displays increased combat ability thanks to his extensive training and experience. He gains a +2 sacred or profane bonus on combat maneuvers he performs with his deity’s favored weapon.

Righteous Leader (Ex)

At 8th level, the sentinel’s commitment to his faith and the deeds he does in the name of his god add to his reputation. He gains Leadership as a bonus feat, and is considered to qualify for that feat’s special power leadership modifier. He takes no penalty for moving around a lot (normally this imposes a –1 penalty to a character’s leadership score) but he takes double the usual penalty for recruiting a cohort of a different alignment (–2 instead of –1).

Unstoppable Warrior (Su)

At 10th level, the sentinel becomes a stalwart paragon demonstrating incredible combat prowess. He gains damage reduction based on the alignment of his deity, as shown in the table.

In addition, the sentinel no longer falls unconscious when reduced to a negative hit point total, though he can take only a single standard or move action while at negative hit points, and he continues to lose hit points normally if he is not stabilized. Taking standard actions after becoming stable causes the sentinel’s wounds to reopen, and he begins losing hit points normally again.